Hello everyone! I went to Morocco last weekend, from September 23--25! Here are a ton of pictures.
I went through an organization called CityLife. They're like an affiliate/partner of my program. It's a company that puts on events for foreign exchange students in Madrid and also organizes trips to other places. No one else in my program was able to come because you had to be in Morocco by 2PM and most people who were interested have class after 10AM on Friday (which is when I get out) and didn't have the time to get to the airport. So I didn't know anyone else going, but there were a bunch of other kids on the trip and they were all super friendly and nice.
This is the plane leaving Spain. We started descending to land like right after this picture. I heard the landing gear come out and I was like "??? We are over the ocean."
But Morocco was like right there! I took the first picture and this one eight minutes apart. I knew they were close, but seeing it in person was crazy.
Airport cat in Tangier :)
Our plane getting in was late, so instead of the lunch we had planned we had to stop at a shopping center and pick between McDonald's and a supermarket. I picked the supermarket. Here is the paella I got.
Here is the pastry counter. I got like five of these to try.
Just a ton of pomegranate food. I think it's yogurt. I don't like yogurt, but I do like pomegranate, so I like their style.
Here are the cats that came by us while we ate. I put my phone away after I took this so I could eat, but like four more cats rolled up. Cats will be a recurring part of this blog post. Usually food takes center stage, for Salamanca it was vibes, for Morocco it's cats. There's a ton of street cats in Morocco.
Lunch :) Best paella I've had so far. The pastries were good. My favorite ones were the two pistachio ones, which are the green roll in the back left corner and the ball in the front left corner (it's green and pistachio under the tan flakies).
That is Spain! From Morocco! Again, I knew they were close, but seeing it in person was crazy. Anyway, I took this on the drive to the hotel.
After quickly dropping our stuff off in the hotel, we went straight on a walking tour of Tangier. There were a lot of people and I couldn't really hear the tour guide, so not a ton to say about these.
Again... Spain.
This one is for Liam. I did hear the tour guide say that Black Widow and some other movies (that are better) were filmed here.
At the end of the walking tour we went to a weaving shop and a pharmacy.
After the walking tour was dinner. This was across the street from where we ate dinner!
Dinner performance :)
Here was the first course of dinner: soup. I'm not a soup fan, but this was good.
Second course of dinner: couscous :)
Forgot to take a picture of the whole plate so here is the last bit of dessert. Not sure what it was, but it was good.
Mint tea at the end of dinner. I'm not a tea person either, but if all tea tasted like this I would be. This was the best tea I've ever had (again, limited in the tea I'm comparing it to).
In Morocco it's super common to barter. The norm is that the price you're given isn't the real price and you can get it down. I was not about that. Everything was really cheap already (like later on this trip I saw a girl barter for 20 minutes over a €1 magnet, and that's just what I'm about), and I just didn't. But the one thing I did try to barter for was this dinner. This was an optional dinner that everyone went to, and they said they had vegetarian options. It was like 120 dirhams (€12) for the whole dinner. It turns out that the vegetarian option was that I simply didn't get some of the courses. Everyone else got lamb kebabs; I didn't, and I didn't get a substitute. Everyone else got another thing (cow?); I didn't, also no substitute. And I was a little bothered because I was hungry, but also it was whatever. But I got a water bottle during dinner (because you can't drink tap water in Morocco) because I kinda thought one drink would be included. It wasn't. At the end of dinner they charged me 10 dirhams (€1) for water and that's what got me. I asked for the water for free because I didn't get some of the food and they said, "No." And then I asked again and they said, "No." So my first and last bartering attempt was a fail. It's all good though. Here's the views from the roof of the restaurant.
The weekend that we were there was the annual jazz festival (unexpected), so here's some jazz outside our hotel.
Then we went to sleep. This is Saturday now. This is where we had breakfast in the hotel. Pretties.
Breakfast. I'm not a breakfast person (seems like I'm not-a-lot-of-things person, but to be fair, this one I come by honestly. I come from a long line of not breakfast people. But by 10:30...). This was really good though.
We ate breakfast on the balcony of the hotel. Views.
View of the hotel from the balcony where we ate.
Back in the hotel.
Leaving the hotel, view of the hotel. I didn't have time to take a picture the day before in the mad dash to drop off our stuff and go, since we were late, so here it is now. After breakfast we started making our way from Tangier to Chefchaouen.
On the drive we stopped at this cliffside for a second.
I don't know why I'm smiling like Liam in this (like someone's hurting me), but it is what it is.
After the cliffside, we went to ride camels on the beach! Yaaas. While I was waiting for my turn on the camels and then afterwards, all I did was stand in the ocean.
When my parents rode camels, my mom took a picture of the shadow of her camel. Before I took my trip, she told me to do that same. I was going to anyway. Apple tree etc etc etc. This one's for you Mom.
I also took a video.
Me with my camel :)
Bye camels :(
After the camels we went to the Hercules Caves.
Outside the cave.
Got the obligatory Magnum bar (no almond, sad).
It was still good though.
Views from the cliff by the caves.
After the caves we kept driving to Chefchaouen. Here's the views of where we stopped for lunch.
Here's the view from where I sat at lunch.
Lunch for me: tagine. It was really good (better than the night before's).
Views while we kept driving to Chefchaouen. The driving was honestly one of my favorite parts, or maybe just something I really enjoyed and didn't expect to. Everything was so beautiful and it was so nice to just look out the window and take everything in.
In Chefchaouen! Here's some pictures from the walk to the hotel. Took this picture and am posting it just to say: Going to Perception, y'all need anything?
Chefchaouen is called "the blue city" because everything is white and blue.
Here's our hotel room. Me and my roommates opened the door, gasped, took a step back, got out our phones, and took pictures. It was so cool. And I got the bed that's along the back wall under the window, which was very vibey.
Again, right after we dropped off our stuff, we were running late and had to rush to the walking tour we had. Here's a picture of the hotel from across the street at the walking tour meeting point.
All these pictures are from the walking tour. Again, I couldn't hear the tour guide that well, so not a ton to add.
The tour guide said that they have to repaint the blue and white every two or three months.
After the walking tour we had a little free time. I walked around with some other girls, bought a magnet (I'm collecting magnets from everywhere I go this year), post cards, some earrings (also inadvertently collecting earrings, what can I say, I'm an earring girl, and I just keep finding cool ones). I also got henna done.
Then we had another optional dinner that everyone went to. Here's the drink I had at dinner. This drink is sooo good. You can see it in my picture from the McDonald's/supermarket lunch from when we first got here. I saw a drink with pineapple on it, I thought it was juice, I got it, it was actually soda. Not a soda person, but guess I am a pineapple soda person. It was the best soda I've ever had (better than frambuesa by a ton, I'm not even kidding). I probably drank this more than I did water this weekend.
Dinner was amazing. (Way better than last night, and not just because of the no vegetarian option/water bottle thing.) First course of dinner: this salad. Maybe the second best salad I've ever had (after salad, of course, way after salad, but very good still). That's goat cheese. Yeah.
Second course of dinner: tagine. The best tagine of the trip. Fun fact: I thought that the yellow thing on top was zucchini and I ate it. It was lemon. It was good though it just surprised me.
Dessert. Not a yogurt person (maybe the theme of this blog isn't cats but me being not-a-this-thing person), so I passed this one off to my friend. But it looked good.
Views from the roof of where we had dinner.
Coming back in the hotel after dinner.
Breakfast on Sunday. Once again, not a breakfast person, but this was good. (Yesterday's was better, with the tomatoes and eggs, today's was just a lot of carbs, and I love a lot of carbs, but just personal preference for breakfast.)
Walking to the bus to go to the airport. I love this picture. The mountain with the clouds is crazy.
On the bus leaving. This is what I was talking about when I said I loved the bus rides. Isn't that so cool.
My last pineapple soda while I was in the airport. Sad.
Overall I had a great time in Morocco! As you saw, we crammed a ton into 48 hours, so it was a very busy and exciting weekend.
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